Ethar

Shortly after the capture of the ImperialNebulon-B frigatePriam, the Alliance learned the location of the Death Star I and Ethar 1 and 2 were sent there to investigate. They arrived to find that the Death Star had already left, having destroyed the planet first. Furthermore, Imperial forces had anticipated the Rebel's arrival and lingered there to set a trap. The corvettes were disabled and the Imperials dispatched repair crews aboard the Lambda-class shuttles, Ceptor 1 and 2 to board and capture the corvettes under the protection of Assault Gunboats.

Sometime later, the Alliance mounted a rescue attempt. The operation comprised three waves. First, three X-wings from Red Squadron, flown by Keyan Farlander, Casal Marskan and Horodi, arrived to engage the Gunboats. Three minutes later, two groups of three Y-wings from Blue and Gold squadrons arrived and attempted to disable the corvettes. Six minutes after the arrival of the Y-wings, two Lambda-class shuttles from Rogue group arrived to recapture the corvettes.

The Rebels succeeded in recapturing the corvettes, but resistance was greater than anticipated and the cost was high. Marskan and Horodi were both killed before the Y-wings arrived. After the rest of the Rebels fled to hyperspace, a communications problem resulted in Farlander receiving a late mission complete message and his X-wing was destroyed as he continued to battle the Gunboats alone. Farlander was able to eject and was later recovered by the Rebels.

X-Wing: The Official Strategy Guide's mission statistics tables show Ethar 2 listed as being in the mission "Defend the Independence". It's cargo is listed as "admiral" and its status at the start of the mission is "disabled". However the ship does not appear in the mission in either the game or the book's mission description so this appears to be an error.